Talking to yourself symptom

Why Do People Talk to Themselves? The Impacts of Self-Talk

Written by WebMD Editorial Contributors

Why People Talk to Themselves

It’s more common for people to talk to themselves than to not. According to one study, 96% of adults say they have an internal dialogue. While self-talk out loud is less common, 25% of the adults say they do it.

Many people talk to themselves in everyday situations. There’s a stigma around talking to yourself out loud in public, but doing it can help you understand the world around you. When you talk to yourself you’re intentionally taking in your surroundings.

Inner dialogue usually sounds similar to the way you would speak to others. This kind of self-talk can occur quietly inside your head or be spoken out loud. Either way, it’s a passive activity – simply listening to your own thoughts.

Another type of internal self-talk happens when you’re debating something with yourself – not just listening to your thoughts. Some people feel their inner dialogue come from a specific place in their body. This could be in their chest or certain parts of their head.

Self-Talk and Mental Health

When people talk to themselves, they may be working problems out in their minds and speaking them out loud. This is also known as “self-explaining.” Talking out loud helps people work through their thoughts.

This is a healthy problem-solving tactic. There have been studies that show when people talk through what they’ve just experienced, they’re more likely to learn from it and understand it.‌

Self-talk refers to the way that you talk to yourself, whether positively or negatively. Positive self-talk can help you hype yourself up and feel confident before a situation. When you talk to yourself this way you’re able to motivate yourself and pay more attention to your thoughts.

The mental and social benefits of self-talk have long been debated by philosophers. Self-talk can help you make decisions more easily and motivate you to do things you may be putting off. Keeping a positive outlook and talking to yourself kindly can have great impacts on your overall mental health.

Mental Health Conditions

There are some cases where talking to yourself can be a sign of a mental health condition. Muttering and speaking random sentences out loud could be a sign of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia affects many people worldwide. It’s more common in young people when they’re going through major transitions in their life.

Schizophrenia is more common than Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis. It can affect men in their mid-20s and women a bit later in life. Schizophrenia in children is rare.

This condition doesn’t have an exact cause, but certain things make someone more prone to developing it. These could include brain chemical balance, genetic causes, and environmental issues. Drugs could also play a part.

One of the main symptoms of schizophrenia is disordered thoughts. Your thoughts may feel blocked or jumbled. When you speak them out loud they may not have a logical order. When you talk to yourself you might make up new words, repeat single words or phrases with no context, or give new meanings to words.

If caught early, schizophrenia can be treated and managed.

Is talking to yourself normal? What it means for mental health

Researchers have widely studied the act of talking to yourself, concluding it is a common and normal behavior. People refer to talking to yourself as self-talk or self-directed talk.

Although people often associate self-talk with mental health issues, healthcare professionals consider it normal at all ages and even beneficial in some circumstances.

In this article, we explore why a person might self-talk. We will also look at its benefits and when it may indicate a mental health condition.

Researchers have been studying self-talk for a long time. In the 1880s, scientists were particularly interested in what people say to themselves, why they talk to themselves, and the purposes of self-talk.

Research defines self-talk as a verbal expression of an internal position or belief, meaning it expresses inner feelings, non-verbal thoughts, and intuitions about a situation through speech. The person only intends to direct their speech at themselves.

While children often talk to themselves, it should not be a cause for concern for parents or caregivers. It is a way of developing language, staying stimulated during a task, and improving performance while completing tasks.

The habit of self-talk may continue into adulthood and is generally not a problem.

Self-talk may have several benefits. It causes no significant health risks unless a person also experiences other symptoms of a mental health condition, such as hallucinations.

While performing a task with a set of instructions, self-talk may improve control over the task, concentration, and performance. It may also enhance problem-solving skills.

A 2012 study examined how self-talk affects visual search tasks. The findings suggest that self-talk while looking for a particular object, such as a lost item of clothing or set of keys, or trying to find products in a grocery store, may help a person find them sooner.

Research also suggests there could be benefits to engaging in self-talk during sport, depending on how the person self-talks and what they say.

For example, self-talking in a motivational or instructional way could improve performance. However, although negative self-talk may increase motivation in sport, it may not improve performance.

There are three categories of self-talk that differ depending on the tone of voice. These include:

Positive self-talk: Encourages and reinforces positive beliefs about a person. Engaging in positive self-talk may decrease anxiety and improve concentration and focus.
Negative self-talk: Usually involves critical and discouraging dialog.
Neutral self-talk: This type of self-talk is not significantly positive or negative. People may use it to give instructions themselves rather than reinforcing or encouraging a particular belief or emotion.

People may also refer to talking to yourself as overt and covert self-talk. Overt talk is self-directed speech that other people can hear. Covert talk is speech that occurs internally that no-one else can hear, for example, by mouthing speech rather than speaking out loud.

There are several reasons why a person might self-talk, including:

Regulating emotions

Self-talk may help regulate and process emotions. For example, if a person self-talks about feeling nervous or angry, it could help them by:

directing their focus to improve their nerves or anger
controlling their emotions
thinking about how to respond to their feelings at that moment

Reducing anxiety

A 2014 study suggests that people with anxiety, including social anxiety, could benefit from engaging in self-talk.

The researchers found that people referring to themselves in the third-person could distance themselves from their distressing feelings and process, regulate, and analyze these emotions to help reduce anxiety. Engaging in self-talk may also decrease anxiety after stressful events.

If self-talk interferes with a person’s life, there are ways to reduce this behavior.

Writing down self-talk in a journal may help a person transfer thoughts from their mind, organize thought processes, and manage stress and anxiety.

Maintaining a journal can help people identify everyday situations that cause them to self-talk and become more aware of what could trigger these scenarios in the future.

Practicing the shifting of self-talk to internal thoughts when they occur or mouthing speech instead of vocalizing it may also reduce self-talking.

People may find their self-talk affects their mental health if they are negative and self-criticize when they talk to themselves.

In these situations, they should speak with a mental health professional to find ways to improve self-esteem and adjust self-talk to focus on being more positive and encouraging.

Schizophrenia

If a person self-talks as part of a hallucination, they should seek help from a healthcare professional. Self-talk and hallucinations may indicate a mental health condition, such as schizophrenia.

A person with schizophrenia may experience changes in their behavior and thoughts, such as hallucinations or delusions. Hallucinations cause a person to see, hear, smell, taste, or feel things that are not part of the world around them and are only present in their mind.

Hearing voices and responding to them is a common hallucination in schizophrenia. These voices and sensations seem real to the person experiencing them. Healthcare providers state that the brain reacts to these voices in the same way as if they were engaging in a conversation with a real person.

People with schizophrenia may also withdraw from the world, losing interest in everyday interactions with friends and family and finding it hard to express emotions.

For most people, talking to yourself is a normal behavior that is not a symptom of a mental health condition.

Self-talk may have some benefits, especially in improving performance in visual search tasks. It can also aid understanding in longer tasks requiring following instructions.

Self-talk is not a harmful act to engage with, and parents or caregivers with children who often talk to themselves should not be worried.

It is natural for a person to have an internal monologue while engaging with tasks and processing thoughts and emotions. They may choose to verbalize this inner monologue, which is common.

Why does a person talk to himself out loud - the norm or deviation | Lifestyle

Stfw.Ru

22.07.2020, 08:18 News

Why does a person sometimes talk to himself out loud? The opinion of psychologists on this matter is quite unambiguous, many people talk to themselves from time to time, however, not everyone focuses on this. Surely you have noticed more than once that someone purrs a song or a rhyme under his breath. This is not exactly a conversation out loud, but also from that series. In some cases, a person is not aware of this and is caught by the sound of his own voice. Let's listen to the opinion of psychologists, is it normal to talk to yourself out loud, and also in what situations can this be considered the norm? Why do people talk to themselves About 70% of their time, a person talks to himself, and this is considered normal. This is how most adults act, and there is even a special term for this - "egocentric speech". Most often, this is an internal dialogue that we have with ourselves. We ask ourselves, we answer ourselves, and we do not pay much attention to it. It is a completely different matter when a person begins to speak out loud, and voices his thoughts or actions. Why a person talks to himself, the reasons for this phenomenon can be very diverse. nine0003

With a heavy load and intense mental activity, a person can sometimes pronounce his actions so as not to make a mistake. The brain is so arranged that when we hear a speech, we can imagine it visually. When visualizing (and voicing), errors become visible, and they can be identified and corrected in time. When constructing sentences, the logical chain becomes slimmer, and the problem is solved faster and more correctly. Thus, voicing your actions is a way to make a decision. Extraneous thoughts cease to interfere, and the brain focuses on what is expressed in voice. An excess of emotions sometimes overwhelms and overwhelms. In order not to explode, these feelings can result in angry tirades directed nowhere. They are simply voiced, and this emotional discharge helps not to accumulate negativity in oneself, thereby saving one from nervous overstrain. Sometimes this is a way to get away from the conflict, but for internal calm, you can continue the argument, and "defeat" the opponent, even if he does not hear it. This is a little trick, but if it saves you from conflict and a major quarrel, then why not? Most people have a need for communication. Once in isolation, a person has no one to contact with, but it is necessary to hear at least someone's voice. He begins to play theater, and in this case, he can talk with inanimate objects, and be responsible for them. This also fits into the norm, if a person realizes that this is just a game. You can talk to your reflection in the mirror, with a TV, with a coffee maker or a closet, but it is important to realize that this is just a conversation with yourself. A person talking to himself out loud is a possible diagnosis. There are certain types of mental disorders in which a person talks to himself aloud with you. Psychiatrists make a diagnosis only after examination, in combination with other accompanying symptoms. After all, it is important to find out why a person talks to himself, and in what cases is this considered a deviation? nine0003

When a person simply speaks out his problem in order to voice it, he does not wait for advice, but he himself is looking for a solution. With deviations, the patient "sees" the interlocutor, and for him this is not a monologue, but a dialogue. In his head there is an interlocutor invisible to other people with whom he talks, sometimes argues or even swears. Schizophrenia or a split personality have similar symptoms, and only a specialist can distinguish between these two different disorders. Self-diagnosis is unacceptable, in both cases, if the conversations and monologues of a loved one cause anxiety, it is not worth delaying a visit to a psychologist. Talking to yourself can be a symptom of the following diseases: psychosis; bipolar disorder; split personality; alcoholic delirium; obsessive-compulsive disorder; hallucinations of various etiologies. There are many other mental illnesses in which a person begins to speak out loud, without interlocutors. In most of these cases, the conversations are caused by delusions, visual or auditory hallucinations. Without treatment, mental disorders progress, and it is important not to start the disease. In cases where an elderly person talks out loud to himself, special attention should be paid to the nature of these conversations. Older people often lose hearing, and auditory hallucinations can occur against this background. It seems to them that someone is talking to them and they just answer. And if you add poor eyesight to this, then an elderly person may well mistake a chair for a neighbor who came to chat. As a rule, after some time they realize their mistake, which is why they are embarrassed and upset. If this is just a coherent conversation, and not nonsense, you should not worry. Since cerebral circulation in older people often does not work in the best way, the part of the brain responsible for memory and concentration suffers. In order not to forget something important or even your daily activities, an elderly person needs to say these actions out loud. nine0003

Talking to yourself aloud is not considered a pathology and the opinion of psychologists in this regard is unanimous. Stress, depression, lack of sleep and general overwork can exacerbate many mental disorders. Self-talk is not an aberration, but it can be an important signal not to be ignored. If conversations were not inherent before, but suddenly appeared, then the issue must be resolved, if possible without delay. How to stop talking to yourself out loud. Many children talk to themselves, and for them it's a game. These games should not be interrupted, because children tend to live in a fairy-tale world up to a certain point. This period ends, as a rule, in the very first school years, and conversations with oneself stop. You need to worry only if the child insistently claims that he has an interlocutor. A fictitious friend who exists only in the imagination of a child is not a good signal. The child is lonely and has no one else to talk to, except for a fictional character, and he believes in his reality. nine0003

Students during the session are often at the limit of their abilities, and at moments of the highest tension, they may even start talking. Of course, this is not good, but it is temporary stress that is difficult to avoid. While studying, young people still do not know how to properly allocate their time, and this results in overwork, both physical and mental. As a rule, the disorder passes, but with too frequent stress, the habit of talking to yourself out loud can take hold. nine0003

In the beginning, a person is not aware that he is speaking aloud, and people around him more often pay attention to it. Only by catching a frightened or bewildered look on himself does a person begin to realize that he is voicing his thoughts out loud. helps to focus on the problem, you can try to start a diary. After all, the presentation of thoughts on paper is the same visualization. Especially this method helps creative people who are looking for non-standard solutions. Writing out words in beautiful handwriting, decorating letters with curlicues helps to concentrate and grab the right solution by the tail. The same method is also good for dealing with loneliness when there is not much to talk to. With a diary, you can share your worries, dreams, complain about life, and speak out. However, you need to understand that the problem is still in the lack of communication, and not in talking out loud, and the diary is a temporary measure until this communication is established. Live contact with people is the best medicine. In some cases, when you are not sure that you can keep your mouth shut, regular chewing gum will help. It is very difficult to chew and talk at the same time, and chewing gum will certainly remind you of this. If you notice that you are starting to speak involuntarily - toffee is a good solution. nine0003

Is it always worth getting rid of the habit of talking to yourself? After all, as a rule, it stimulates the brain, increases mindfulness and concentration. If a person's work is associated with the performance of complex tasks, you should not fight this habit. Unless, you cannot control this process, scare others or are afraid to spill confidential information. Any person is a harmonious person or strives to become one. After all, everyone has their own ideal of perfection, and we all strive for it. When harmony is lost, the brain begins to look for a solution how to fix it. Most often, either bored lazy people or focused workaholics talk to themselves. Boredom and idleness, as well as excessive tension, are not very good for the human psyche. It is worth listening to yourself and finding harmony within yourself. A balanced load, healthy sleep and optimism will help to cope with the problem if it's just a habit. Karolina Korableva Source: psylib.org/pochemu-chelovek-razgovarivaet-sam-s-soboi-vslukh/0003

Schizophrenia self-talk. If a person talks to himself: signs of psychosis

According to research by psychologists, it turns out that people talk to themselves about 70% of the time. The conversation is conducted with an inner voice, that is, with oneself. We ask him questions, consult him, ask him to evaluate our actions...

At present, psychologists all over the world say that such a conversation is only for the benefit of a person. It helps to prevent many mistakes in actions, concentrates attention and frees us from excessive internal stress. Let's look at the reasons for this phenomenon. Why do we sometimes talk to ourselves and why is such an internal dialogue useful? nine0003

Reasons for talking to yourself

First

People who are insecure receive from such a conversation, first of all, the opportunity to concentrate. And this, in due time, gives them confidence in the correctness of the choice of their actions. It turns out that self-talk helps them plan and control their actions.

Second

People with predominantly auditory body language tend to talk to themselves more often. They learn information through sounds. Research by scientists has shown that about 25% of people belong to this type. nine0003

Audials can often talk to themselves a lot. They absorb information better by ear. For them, a verbal explanation of a particular action or process is of great importance. They listen more. Therefore, it is important for them to have such a dialogue with themselves.

Third

Self-talk (in other words, sounds) gives a person an emotional coloring to his thoughts. This helps him find the right justification for his actions and deeds. In silence, we do not experience such emotions. After all, sound (speech) is initially an emotional reaction of the human body, which prompts to perform certain actions. nine0003

Fourth

Talking to yourself, a person is freed from the emotions that are overwhelmed at the moment. They need to be discharged, to go outside. And in this case, it comes at the expense of self-talk. Thus, we get rid of excess emotions and significantly reduce our internal stress, otherwise it can happen.

Fifth

Self-talk has a significant impact on the structure of human thinking. A person begins to think and behave differently than when there would be no such conversation with himself. The process of thinking becomes much more efficient if our thoughts are spoken out loud. This has long been confirmed by psychologists in their studies. It is better remembered when we say something out loud. nine0003

Sixth

Psychologists have proven that dialogue with oneself, even mentally, helps a person avoid ill-considered actions and better control his own sometimes impulsive behavior. It has been experimentally revealed that the number of such actions decreases sharply if a person has spoken to himself before. The control over unpredictable human behavior also increases markedly. It has also been proven that if you say out loud the details of some new business, then it is better remembered and mastered faster. nine0003

What to do if you notice that you often talk to yourself?

If such a dialogue helps you make the right decisions and actions, then do not try to get rid of it. You can just make some adjustments to this situation.

First:

Try not to do it so loudly so as not to attract people around you. This will save you from embarrassing situations.

Second:

Get ready when you go anywhere.

When you go to the store, you can make a list of necessary items that you need to buy. When leaving - calculate the time of leaving the house. Think through every detail before leaving their home. Check the apartment again. So that everything is turned off and nothing is forgotten with you from things. Thus, you partially save yourself from talking to yourself. Thoughtful preparation will also give confidence in your further actions, and you will say less what you want to remember or doubt something. nine0003

Sometimes people talk to themselves. Most often, this is a sign of loneliness when you want to talk, but have no one to talk to. For such people, it is recommended to have a pet. You can calmly talk to him out loud, it's even funny. Sometimes children talk aloud, often during the game. In this case, they are trying to voice their role, they lack attention. Perhaps such a child needs to play with peers more often so that he does not get used to speaking for himself and for the doll.

If people talk to themselves out loud, then they often lack people's attention. In this situation, it is necessary to expand the circle of contacts, go out more often, communicate with people. Start a business, a hobby, you do not need to close in on yourself. You can try to look for friends on the Internet, this also helps. nine0003

Why else does a person talk to himself out loud?

Also, due to the abundance of information that the brain receives during work, many begin to pronounce numbers or words so as not to get confused. This speaks of the special attentiveness of a person, his fear of making a mistake. Of course, this cannot be called a pathology. It may look weird, but it's not scary. Some call such things still egocentric appeal, that is, words to themselves. It can also be like an overlay of loneliness. nine0003

Mental illnesses

However, in addition to the usual pronunciation of the text or dialogues in a voice, many have real disputes with the absent surroundings. Sometimes the conversation looks quite aggressive. This indicates a person's mental illness, some of them are congenital.

What pathologies are:

Psychopathy;
Schizophrenia;
Split personality and others.

Split human personality - a diagnosis, it can be obtained as a result of experienced mental trauma, often they come from childhood. Sexual or physical influences affect the behavior of an adult later. It seems to him that he develops several personalities, and of different sexes. There may be about a dozen of them. He can experience not only depression, but also try to harm himself. Many people suffer from schizophrenia. They are quite adequate until they start talking to themselves. Often creative people suffer from schizophrenia, it is like withdrawing into oneself from the stresses of the world around. nine0003

Do not make a diagnosis yourself, see a doctor

These diseases are already being treated by a psychiatrist, but in any case, you need to examine a person, and not put a diagnosis on him unfounded. If a person has experienced severe stress, has been in a state of loneliness for a long time, likes to think out loud, then he will often behave strangely. That is why the reasons why people talk to themselves can be different, and pathology is not always the case. However, if the family had schizophrenia, it must be borne in mind that the disease is often inherited and, under certain circumstances, may well recur. nine0003

Finding out why people talk to themselves is not difficult, you just need to contact a specialist, and he will name the reason in each case.

If a person talks to himself aloud, is the person diagnosed with a mental illness or is this behavior normal? It all depends on the characteristics of these "conversations", their frequency and the presence of other symptoms.

As you know, all people, without exception, conduct internal dialogues. This is completely normal, because the thought processes proceed in this way. Sometimes pieces of internal conversations “break out” and there is nothing wrong with that either. For example, a person thought about something for a long time, looked for answers to some questions, and finally found it. Joy on this occasion overwhelms him, and he shouts something like “hurray”, “well done”, etc. This happens to everyone from time to time. nine0003

Some people babble along with difficult work, saying certain things aloud so as not to "lose" sight or get confused. If at the same time they are aware that they are talking to themselves, then there can be no talk of any mental illness. Just a harmless personality trait.

But there are other cases. For example, a person in all seriousness talks with someone visible only to him - with some non-existent interlocutor. He asks questions and "hears" the answers to them, reacting accordingly. Or just monologue, addressing someone who is not really around. nine0003

Or a person, as it were, plays several

roles, changing his voice, intonation, facial expression. That is, it splits into two and arranges a “one-actor theater”, without realizing it, but sincerely believing that there are two or even three of them. This and the previous case is no longer the norm. Most likely we are talking about a mental illness called schizophrenia.

This term is of Greek origin and translates as division of the mind. "Shizo" - I split, "freno" - mind, soul. The disease is a loss of human contact with reality, the loss of harmony of thinking, which naturally affects behavior. Hallucinations are one of the main symptoms of schizophrenia. Here they are, in fact, become the cause of conversations with oneself. nine0003

The person may think that he sees someone or just hears voices. Often the latter are command and order the patient to do something. As a result, a person suffering from schizophrenia can commit the most terrible acts - up to murder or suicide. In order to recognize the disease in time and protect a person from danger, relatives should be attentive to the slightest manifestations of the disease. And regular self-talk is one of them.

Thus, thinking aloud can be both a variant of the norm and a symptom of mental pathology. If a person talks to himself sometimes and is aware of this, then there is no need to worry. If there are conversations with someone who is not actually around, you should consult a doctor. nine0003

Talking to oneself is an adequate phenomenon if it looks like a monologue inside oneself. In addition, the norm is a conversation with oneself out loud, if such a monologue helps to coordinate one's own actions, helps to cope with emotions. The inner voice is an important assistant, it gives a chance to put thoughts in order, plan actions, look for things.

Scientists are sure that a person talks to himself 70% of the time. If a person tells himself something out loud, then this is evidence of an encounter with an unusual task or a search for things. nine0003

Conducting an experiment. Self-talk help

Researchers set up an experiment to find out how a monologue can help you find lost things. Volunteers were divided into 2 parts. One group was looking for a thing, thinking aloud, and the other - silently.

The results were surprising. The first group found what was lost sooner than the second. This study proves that internal conversation helps to better perceive and understand the data of the brain.

Where does a systematic conversation with oneself come from, why does the voice inside us have such a voice? Like other factors in the formation of personality, it is formed at an early age. It is upbringing that influences our consciousness and internal dialogues. If you constantly hear insults addressed to you that characterize you as a lazy clumsy, then the voice inside will only express insults. Such children become pessimistic, aggressive or apathetic. nine0003

Talking to yourself will help you find a lost item, sort out a difficult problem, and make the right choice.

If such a mistake was made by the parents, do not fall into despair. Everyone can help themselves. If you work on yourself, then sooner or later you will hear an exclamation inside: "I'm done." Researchers express an opinion about the primary inner voice. In 70% of cases, the inner “person” is the one who brings criticism and negativity in life. For a positive result, try to change it, to subordinate it to yourself. Present all reproaches as a cute animal or an overly pretentious person. If you focus on the manner of speaking inside, then this will distract from the essence of the phrases, they will not offend your personality so much. nine0003

Then learn if he is a hindrance. It's hard, but training will make the task easier: focus on several points at once, try to keep 3 things in your field of vision, perceive 3 sounds around. Such workload will “muffle” the conversation inside.

If your inner "inhabitant" loves you, then he helps in the fulfillment of plans. And turning it off often helps not only in relationships (a voice talking about problems and past failures often spoils romance and intimacy), but also at work. nine0003

Remember, talking to yourself should support a person in everything, not induce panic, not distract from important thoughts and moments.

Talking to yourself. Signs of psychosis

If a person talks to himself and does not wait for an answer, then this often turns out to be an early sign of psychosis - schizophrenia. If you just mumble something - this is not always a sign of such a disease. But laughter and long conversations, combined with other deviations in behavior (isolation, hallucinations) require an immediate consultation with a doctor. nine0003

Self-talk as a mental disorder is easy to distinguish. A person in such a state is disconnected from everything, he is not interested in communication with other people.

The most typical symptom of psychoses is hallucinations. This is a misperception of reality in one of the sensory categories. In this case, there are no external stimuli in life, but a person hears, sees or feels something. Such phenomena appear in the moment between awakening and sleep, in an unconscious state, in delirium tremens, with severe exhaustion. Another reason is hypnosis. Most often, hallucinations are visual. nine0003

Clear hallucinations are a symptom of schizophrenia. With one of the varieties of this disease, people are sure that they hear orders from an inner voice or a voice from outside, they obey, defend themselves, or commit suicide.

But, contrary to popular opinion, one should not assume that schizophrenia is the same as personality disorders in the form of a split, when a person also talks to himself.

PHOTOS Getty Images

Every one of us talks to himself at some point. Strain your imagination and you will hear a muffled chorus of whisperers praising or scourging themselves. There is an opinion that thinking as such is a form of self-talk, says columnist Sarah Sloat. In short, we get to know ourselves the same way we get to know other people—through dialogue. nine0003

Self-talk is defined by self-talk psychologist James Hardy: ".

Some psychologists believe that our "I" consists of two parts: one of them controls our mind and perception, and the other simply acts. Self-talk can be a bridge between these two parts. nine0003

These conversations can be extremely helpful or harmful, depending on how you approach it. Everyone has these conversations in their own way, but here are three tricks that can turn them into a useful exercise.

You, not me

Whether you refer to yourself as "you" or as "I" matters. It is better to refer to yourself using the pronoun not of the first, but of the second person, that is, to call yourself “you” and, moreover, by name. By changing how we refer to ourselves in this way, we can better regulate our behavior, thoughts, and feelings. Saying “you” to ourselves or calling ourselves by name, we create the necessary psychological distance that allows us to talk about what is happening to us, as if a little from the outside. It can also reduce stress in people with social anxiety and help you calm down when you're thinking about things after the fact. nine0003

Be gentle with yourself

Dialogue with yourself creates space for reflection, but it is not always good for us. The best option is to cheer yourself up. Trying to motivate yourself, for example, has been proven to help athletes maintain their energy levels and improve endurance. Positive self-talk improves our mood and emotionally supports us. Conversely, talking to yourself in a critical way has been shown to lower self-esteem and increase the likelihood of repeating the same conversations in the future. Psychologists say that a person is able to choose how to think, and this largely depends on how we talk to ourselves. Therefore, it is important for your well-being that you at least talk kindly to yourself. nine0003

Use in emergency situations

The inner voice helps us control our impulsive behavior. For example, when we say to ourselves: “Just go and do it!” or "Don't even look at that piece of cake!" Participants in the experiment were asked to press a button if they saw a certain symbol. At the same time, they had to repeat the same word all the time, which made internal dialogue impossible. In this case, they behaved much more impulsively and less controlled than in the other part of the experiment, where nothing prevented their inner voice from sounding. nine0003

It is also believed that self-talk helps when you are learning something new. The key to success here is to keep your statements short, to the point, and not contradictory. Psychologist Antonis Hatzigeorgiadis, who studies this issue, explains: “By talking to yourself, you stimulate and direct your actions, and then evaluate the results.

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